The last Mercury Sable will roll off the assembly line this Thursday. The latest casualty of the worldwide economic downturn, the Mercury-branded Taurus has been produced alongside its vastly more popular brother since 1986 - with a short production stoppage in 2006.

While Ford recently unveiled an all new Taurus, the decision was made to hold-off on a Mercury version based on the same chassis and instead dedicate current advertising and future R&D resources to the Taurus.

Including the Sable, Mercury is comprised of five models, however, both the Mountaineer and Grand Marquis are expected to suffer the same fate as the Sable in the near future.

Mercury sales continue to decline (as do vehicle sales in general), but as Mercury is already a more niche market brand even small changes in volume can drastically effect profit margins.

The Detroit News spoke with Analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics, who says that Mercury will likely continue-on, avoiding the fate of several if General Motors' smaller brands. "Keeping Mercury allows them to do specialty vehicles that appeal to different demographics," he told the Detroit newspaper, noting that both the Milan and Mariner have been a hit with Latinos and women.

This being the car's eulogy, we'd like to say something nice about it, but we have as many emotions about the Sable as Spock does about, well, anything.

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